When I look back at my life as a start-up executive before I was a founder, I was happier (although I was also younger):

I got some of the benefits of success -- I got to be part of something great and had enough equity to make it worthwhile -- with basically none of the pain of the failures.

I got to have hobbies and enjoy them.

Probably, my family life was better because the stress of being a founder didn't intrude into family time.

In fact, before I was a founder, I had no idea what the Stress of Making the Plan Really Meant. Not really.

I built great relationships with my bosses (founders) and co-workers that were just as rewarding as the relationships I built as a founder and as a CEO.

Having said that, for me, it wasn't enough intellectual ownership of the journey. I was also pretty bored outside of the core high drama moments.

Being a founder for me wasn't even more rewarding. But it did stretch me and make me better. "Happy" though sort of went out the door, replaced with a far more visceral sense of "Success" and Accomplishment ... and Failure.

Being a successful founder rewires your brain. It makes you far sharper, far more insightful, far more able to understand the whole of how a business works. But it does change Happiness. If you aren't ready for that, don't do it.

No. I can say this with 100% confidence. This is the value of working for a few years before starting a company. I know with certainty that I'm happier as an entrepreneur than I was as an employee.

Is it stressful? Hell yes. Nights of sheer terror (always seems to be at night), days full of tedium, the infinite list of tiny crap that has to get done, and the occasional "OMG this is incredible" moment.

Like all founders, I know we won't fail. But if I do, I will be a better employee for having had this experience, because I will then really appreciate things like paid vacations, lots of amazing coworkers around, getting told what to focus on vs the cognitive load of deciding, being able to focus on one thing at a time, not having to do corporate taxes, getting free lunches, and working in offices with aeron chairs and automated standing desks.

Constant stress? Let's get real. The fact is, even if I have to spend every last dime I have on @vendorsi I won't be homeless. So any "dark days" are simply relative to all that is out there in the world. I don't have to dig ditches, or worry about choosing between paying my rent and feeding my kids while working for a crappy boss at major retail chain. People who say startups are hard: of course they are! Otherwise everyone would be doing it. (I know it seems like everyone *is* doing a startup right now, but only if you live here in the Bay Area. )

Michael Dearing, who was an executive at eBay when I was there and is now an angel investor in startups and a professor at Stanford, used to say to us, "85% gross margins and you guys are complaining about the cream cheese?" Which pretty much says it all. You gotta have perspective on these things, and it's all relative.